Prevalence of Unplanned Pregnancy and associated risk factors among Pregnant Women in Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: Unplanned pregnancy is a public health problem that affects maternal and child health, including maternal death, abortion, and low birth weight. Consequently, the government established family planning for action to prevent and reduce the health problems for most disadvantaged women. Objective: This study was conducted to examine the overall prevalence of unplanned pregnancy and its associated risk factors in Ethiopia.

Methods: A Population based cross-sectional study was conducted from Ethiopian 2016 demographic health survey data. A total of 3894 pregnant women were included in the study and the samples were selected trough multistage stratified cluster sampling. Uni-variate and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to identify factors associated with an unplanned pregnancy. Variables with p-value < 0.05 were identified as significant factors.

Results: Among 3894 understudy pregnant women, 31.02% (95% CI = 28.21-38.58 %) of pregnancies was unplanned. The analysis result revealed that women whose age ≤ 30 years [adjusted odds ratio(AOR) = 5.42, 95 % CI=2.38 - 12.34], women in rural [AOR =1.11, 95% CI=1.03 - 2.39], illiterate women [AOR =2.3,95% CI=2.02 - 4.09], women drinks alcohol [AOR =1.45,95% CI=1.31- 1.67], smoker women [AOR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.49 - 2.65 ],women chewing chat[AOR =1.66, 95% CI=1.66 1.18 - 2.33], unemployed women[AOR =4.97, 95%CI=1.31-12.38], poor economic level [AOR =8.42,95%CI=5.87- 14.39] and noneuser contraceptive methods [AOR =1.7, 95% CI=1.14 – 3.87] were found to be associated with unplanned pregnancy.

Conclusion: The prevalence of unplanned pregnancy in the study area was 31.02%. The findings suggest that certain groups of women are at increased risk of unplanned pregnancy and would benefit from targeted family planning interventions.